In accordance with conventional practice, top and bottom work rolls and their supporting chock assemblies are removed from or moved into a rolling mill as unitary structures by means of tracks located on the operating side of the mill which extend in a direction parallel to the axes of the work rolls. In the case of used top and bottom work rolls, the unitary structure is lifted from the tracks and placed on a transport car and moved to the roll shop. In accordance with the prior art practice, the following operations are performed at the roll shop to remove chock assemblies from used work rolls and to mount such chock assemblies on new or refinished top and bottom work rolls to provide a unitary structure to be returned to and mounted in the rolling mill:
1. Disengage both chock assemblies to permit the top work roll and its chock to be removed from the bottom work roll and its chocks.
2. Lift the top work roll and its chocks and place on a first support with the outer end portions of the working surface of the top work roll supported on wooden blocks and with each chock located above a path of movement of a different chock car.
3. Lift the bottom work roll and its chocks and place on a second support similar to the first support with the chocks located above the path of movement of the chock cars.
4. Place two new or refinished work rolls on separate supports similar to the first support with both ends of each work roll overlying the path of movement of the chock cars.
5. By use of chock cars, remove the chocks from the used top work roll and mount the chocks on a new or refinished work roll.
6. By use of the chock cars, remove the chocks from the used bottom work roll and place the chocks on a new or refinished work roll.
7. Lift from the support the new or refinished work rolls with chocks thereon and place the assembly on the transport car.
8. Lift from the support the new or refinished top work rolls with chocks thereon and place that assembly on the new or refinished bottom work roll and assembled chocks supported by the transport car.
9. Re-engage the chocks on the new or refinished top and bottom work rolls at both ends of the work rolls to provide a unitary structure of new or refinished work rolls and chock assemblies for movement to the rolling mill.
It is a primary object of the present invention to eliminate many of the foregoing operational steps of the prior art practice and provide essentially a four-step process which materially reduces the time required to make up a unitary structure of new or refinished work rolls and chock assemblies using chock assemblies from a unitary structure including used work rolls.
This object is achieved by a novel method and apparatus provided by the present invention for removal of chock assemblies from the top and bottom used work rolls and placing of such chock assemblies on new or refinished top and bottom work rolls which eliminates the necessity and the attendant prior art operational steps of disengaging from each other the top work roll chock and the bottom work roll chock of the chock assemblies.
Other objects and features of the present invention will appear from the following detailed description considered with the accompanying drawings which illustrate the preferred embodiment of the invention.